Been a bit behind on results of tourneys.
Heres a mega catch-up!
European Cycling Messenger Championships – BERLIN 28.05.09 – 01.06.09
From what i gather from Buffalo Bill, the weather was absolutely rubbish.

Bills first day write up (probably a bit tippsy)
‘1st day’s play cut short by rain! Sitting Ducks played 3, won 3; Tres Amigos played 3, won 2 (beating a CPH team which may or may not have come 3rd at 2008 ECMC), drawn 1 (!); Malicious Zombie played 3, won 2, lost 1 (to the Munich team that won Shoreditch Invitational); Moving Target played 3, won 1, drawn 1, lost 1. Gabes leading farting contest by a considerable distance from Rik, with Bill some way behind, and Tom yet to post a score.

Gabes account…
‘Had a brilliant weekend, organisation sucked, and the ref couldn’t count scores, so we got knocked out when we shouldn’t have been. But despite this, it was great to play with lots of different people. DTGP, Karlsruhe, Munich, Berlin etc.

London’s game has to change to compete with the europeans, they play such an amazing passing game, no glory runs towards goal, they drop the ball for each other as soon as they know they don’t have a clean run at goal. Great to watch, if a little too polite.’

You guys (esp. Eingang) put on one well organized tourney. The hospitality from all was great (esp. thanks to Catherine and Christophe for putting ( . ) ( . ) up) and desipite first impressions, the court ended up being super fun to play on – Friday throw in’s were awesome!

It was also awesome to meet up with some familiar Euro faces, as well as play against and alongside new faces from some of the best teams in European polo and the U.S what with Mustard Tigers being present.

And of course…I had a blast going out with Em, Brik, Gabes, Daaaavvveee, Manc Andy, Lebowskie, Playboy (Yorgo), Sarah, B and Cosmic Tommo.

We all gave each other the best support, on and off the court, as well as provided some of the best side line banter known to polo. Manc Andy was esp. on fire, calling out lookie like players such as ‘ ronnie corbit’, ‘my name is earl’ and ‘featureless andy’. You prob had to be there to find it funny, but trust me, it was a crack!

And despite all only playing 3 competitive games on the day, we def instigated the most throw in’s and played with the biggest smiles and best attitudes. So if anything, we showed Europe we all just simply love polo and that’s all that really matters!

Cheers guys!

Bring on more international polo – i want a polo wagon!’
words by Golden Wheel

I’m so pleased with Saturday! Beautiful day, beautiful polo. I really want to point out that the games were really clean and really exciting to watch. The skill level in the top performing teams is really tight, the placings could most likely have gone any order on any given day.
Lebowski, Em, Hassan and anybody else who sorted the games and ref’s when I couldn’t, Thank you so much! You guys really helped keep things rolling. Brian, thank you for being a great teammate and a really big thanks for manning the grill even though you weren’t supposed to. Sometimes, I seem to think I can do everything at once…

James -Growup. Wow. This man is my MVP of the day! He deserves a great big thank you from everybody who participated, and a pint or two at least. He stepped up above and beyond to help make the day as good as it possibly could be.
all words by Mike Tramp